Green Room

An Open Letter to Ron Paul Supporters

It’s not easy to see your team lose. Trust me, I know. I grew up cheering for the Kansas City Royals. However, it’s time to concede defeat. Despite the fact that “Dr. Paul” has not officially dropped out of the presidential race, he himself has stopped actively campaigning. Unless Romney, Santorum and Gingrich mysteriously disappear, it’s borderline impossible for him to secure the nomination. In politics, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. This time your candidate unfortunately came short. Hey, I feel your pain; Romney wasn’t my guy to begin with either. Up until a couple months ago, I was still pulling for a Paul Ryan presidency. However, it’s time for all of us to look past our differences and unite for Mitt Romney and against Barack Obama in November.

You may not agree with Mitt Romney’s policies, but would you rather have another 4 years of a Barack Obama presidency? If you believe our current president outshines his likely GOP opponent, then be my guest, vote against Governor Romeny. However, my guess is that most of you align more with Romney rather than Obama. Be aware that a vote for Ron Paul is now a vote against Mitt Romney. Some of you may claim that you plan on writing in Ron Paul because you vote on principle, not politics. Once again, I understand. I too am more of a principled, rather than a political voter. However, it is my principles that will be casting a vote for Mitt Romney in November. My values mostly align with our likely GOP candidate. On the other hand, my values strongly prevent me from casting a vote for Barack Obama. I believe that what we are fighting to protect, our republic and America values, is much more important than any political squabbles any of us have with Mitt Romney.

In the words of our current Commander in Chief: let me be clear. There are many Ron Paul fans in the United States who have thrust their support behind Mitt Romney to preserve the conservative cause in November. Rand Paul is one of these people. However, I would like to address the subset of Ron Paul fans who are so completely devoted to “Dr. Paul” that they are unable to see the irrationality in their own behavior. For example, please, please lay off Senator Rand Paul. Yes, the guy endorsed Mitt Romney. Yes, he has obviously given up on his father’s candidacy. Perhaps it’s time for many of you to do the same. Instead, many of you in the Ron Paul fringe have taken to attacking the younger Paul with the same fervor you scream “End the Fed!” at every turn. Message boards, articles, and blogs are blowing up all around the internet calling Rand Paul “Benedict Arnold” and predicting that he will “burn in hell” because of his endorsement of Mitt Romney. And here I was thinking the only people who have taken to cannibalizing their own kind came from Florida. Excuse me, but knock it off. The Occupy-esque “If you’re not for Ron Paul, you’re conspiring against him,” mentality has to stop. It damages not only conservative and libertarian causes. It also makes your message less effective.

Radical Ron Paul supporters, how do you expect to get your message across when you are a laughingstock? Your behavior is discrediting Ron Paul’s message, most of which I actually support (except for the whole foreign policy thing of course). There comes a time when passion needs to be offset by professionalism. This is that time. Interrupting other politicians’ speeches, flooding message boards with nasty comments and other irrational ploys will not help anyone. If you want Ron Paul’s message to endure, make sure you are respected by your audience. Right now, a subset of you is encouraging disrespect for your candidate’s entire fan base.

The battle are fighting in this election cycle is bigger than Ron Paul. Heck, it’s even bigger than Mitt Romney. If we are going to preserve a world where Ron Paul’s libertarian platform has the potential to make a difference, we need to ensure that Barack Obama is a one term president. Ron Paul fans, you constantly preach the importance of liberty and freedom. I agree. If we are going to preserve liberty and freedom in the future, let’s make sure that we evict the president who has done the most damage to liberty and freedom in American history.

Blowback

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Ron’s career stalled because he took a hard stance against the Permwar Brigade, and his supporters couldn’t make up for it. There’s no way around that fact and Rand doesn’t want the same to happen to him.

Why do you put Dr. Paul in quotations? Do you have some evidence that he does not possess a medical degree? If so, the mothers of the 4,000 or so babies he has delivered could collect millions in malpractice suits against him.
So, is it true? Is he really not a real doctor?
Or are you just a disrespectful jackass?

Other than that, though, Amy makes some good points. I hope all Ron Paul supporters and Republicans in general realize that Mitt Romney is the way forward for our party and our principles.
As long as those principles include:
Being a Keynesian
Advocating a Wilsonian foreign policy
Believing in individual mandates, economic stimuli, gun control, climate change legislation, that “Housing is a right, not a privilege” (you see, that line is in quotes because Romney actually said those words), and that Ben Bernanke is “doing a good job” (another example of properly applied quotation marks).